Chapter 28
“So…” Twilight began, looking around. “Where is it?”
Flight looked at her, and raised an eyebrow. They were stepping off the train in Southstock, on the way back to her ship. It’d been a full week since she’d landed that discovered ship near Ponyville- and Twilight was the only ambassador Princess Celestia was sending back with her.
During the time since, Blacklight and the engineers had given it a thorough examination- and Cold Coils herself reduced the reactor to what was basically ‘idle’. It would run the electronics, but really nothing else- and since she’d locked its main controls out, and crafted a set of secondary controls that couldn’t be used to do anything but shut it down, that was it. She’d then explained to Flight that it was stable, and safe, even at higher power levels- but it didn’t have nearly as many safeties, or as many cutouts, as any Equineothame-produced reactor.
“If every ship in Equineothame space was equipped with one of these, well over ninety percent of ‘em would’ve melted down,” she’d announced.
When Shooting Star had inspected the Distortion Drive on it, he’d declared that the tolerances- the margin between minimum operating power and overload power, where the thing would blow apart- were too small, at only five percent. The Gravity Drive on it was better- but since he recognized the design as one of the early Gravity Drive models used before Equineothame even existed, that had an annoying tendency to surge and explode mid-flight, killing all on board, that was out too. Then he’d inspected the thrusters- and informed her that, had she fired them, a good eighty percent of the cones would’ve shattered, and she’d likely have fireballed.
Then he’d inspected the atmospheric thrusters- and pointed out that some of the vibration she’d felt wasn’t because of ice… it was because some of the blades had let go, so the rotors were imbalanced. Given the badly rusted state of the rotors, he told her he was surprised they’d lasted through the flight she’d pushed them through. Flight had later spotted him explaining the various engines, how they worked, and what he was looking for in his inspection, to Twilight.
But all of that had paled next to Night Skies’ assessment. She’d inspected the thing’s structural components- and had closed her analysis by delivering a couple carefully-placed kicks to make the entire right wing fall off.
“The core structure remains intact, albeit with thin enough components it’d never pass an inspection,” she’d said, “but you’re lucky the extremities- like the wings and tail fins- didn’t fall off while you were in the air. And even if you had had the fuel to go suborbital, the heat shield is toast.”
The final nail in the coffin had been Blacklight’s to pound in. She’d analyzed the system’s software- and announced that there were almost no safeties in the software either, meaning that there were any number of control combinations that would cause major problems- and a distinct lack of warnings. As a result, she’d actually wiped the flight computer and physically disconnected the bridge controls.
Unfortunately, in order to pass any kind of safety inspection, that ship wouldn’t just have to be refit, but rebuilt from the ground up.
“You know,” Flight muttered, “if it was that easy to spot, don’t you think it would’ve made the news by now?”
That didn’t stop Twilight. “But it might not have gotten to the main publications yet,” she stated.
She raised an eyebrow. “In two and a half weeks?”
“... True.”
Then she grinned. “Go ahead and look for it, then,” she instructed. “See if you can find it.” She glanced at Skies. “Admittedly, I’m curious exactly how well our hiding spot will hold up against somepony that’s actually looking for it.”
Twilight grinned. “Oh, I’ll find it.” She leaped into the air, and shot into the sky.
“I’m betting she won’t,” Skies muttered.
“Me too, actually,” Star nodded. “She’s smart, but I don’t think she knows what she’s looking for.” He looked at Flight. “And of course, the active camouflage is on.”
Flight let out a snort of laughter; active camouflage was pretty useless when a ship was in motion- but it took a pretty close search to discover a landed ship with active camouflage enabled. Add in the natural camouflage of its position, some fifteen feet below the waves, and it would be next to impossible to find it, even if she knew exactly what she was looking for, and where. “Alright then,” she chuckled. “Let’s give her a clue, and walk to it.”
Fifteen minutes later, Twilight fluttered down to land next to Flight, with the thestrals, with a puzzled expression.
“Something wrong?” Flight asked.
“I can’t… find it,” Twilight stated. Then she glanced at the cliff that Flight and her crew had been waiting at for the last five minutes. “And if you’re planning on diving from here, I can’t recommend it- it’s not very deep.” She paused, looking between Star, Flight, and Skies, who were snickering into their hooves. “... What?”
“Oh,” Flight chuckled. “Only that you found it… but didn’t realize that you found it.” She stepped up to the edge of the cliff. “Open the lock.”
Twilight stepped up next to her. “What are you-!?” She cut herself off with a gasp.
It looked like a door had just opened on the seafloor, exposing a lit metal interior.
Flight grinned up at Twilight. “Because there it is.”
“But it’s… so small,” Twilight muttered.
Star laughed. “Oh no, that’s just the airlock- the entrance. The whole ship is much bigger. I can show you around, once we’re aboard.”
“Yep,” Flight chuckled. “My ship can carry about the same number of ponies as that old thing we found can… with one major difference: She can carry them… indefinitely. Full life support suite, including fresh food. But anyways, want to jump in with me?”
“Won’t we, you know, drown?” Twilight asked.
Flight actually giggled.
“Ah, no,” Star chuckled. “As soon as we’re inside, the outer door on that airlock will close, then we’ll pump the water overboard, and open the inner door, all high and dry.”
“C’mon in,” Flight cheered, and leaped off the edge, using her wings to propel herself straight down into the waves.
It took her mere seconds to reach and enter the airlock, before she turned to look back up, out towards the rest. Twilight and Star jumped together, then the thestrals followed like dark missiles.
Once everypony was inside the airlock, Flight touched a key on the panel, and the doors slid shut, before the water drained out.
Once Twilight scrambled to her hooves, having been the only pony to land on her side instead of her hooves, she looked at the door. “What-! Wow. You must have a powerful gravity manipulation spell in here.”
Star chuckled. “Actually, there’s no magic involved. The shipboard gravity is one of the effects of our powerful Gravity Drive.”
Flight shook all the water off, before trotting through the inside airlock door. “Well, Twilight. Welcome aboard the First Light.”
It wasn’t long before Twilight had been introduced to everypony, and Flight led her onto the bridge.
The first words out of Twilight’s mouth were “Why are there fish out the windows? And why are they swimming up and down?”
Flight giggled. “Because we’re underwater,” she stated. “And sideways.” She hopped up onto her seat, and struck a few switches- unlocking her controls. “Alright. We ready to get underway?”
A series of yesses came back, so she tapped a few more controls. “Alright. Disengaging tractors, moving away from the cliff face.”
The fish visible out the window seemed to slide downwards a little, before they turned and darted away in all directions.
Silence held for a few minutes.
“Alright, flattened out,” Flight stated. “Deploying wings.” A few more taps.
Another minute.
Flight tilted her head, then looked at Twilight. “Shall we terrorize some locals?”
“What? How?”
“By coming straight up out of the water here, instead of swimming out to sea before we emerge.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “They won’t be terrorized,” she stated. “They’ll just think it’s a little weird. Go ahead and take off here.”
“Alright then,” Flight shrugged. “Operation ‘terrorize the locals’ is a go.”
Wing chuckled. “Sensors standing by,” she stated. “Should be able to get some good pictures.”
“Aaaand, VTOL engaged, surfacing for water takeoff. Um… There, facing Southstock, too.” She tapped a few keys. “Deploying forward atmospherics. Breaking surface… Now.”
“Disengaging active camouflage,” Wing announced.
Finally, the water level fell down across the windshield.
The wings hadn’t even reached the water’s surface when the screaming started. By the time the belly of the ship cleared the waves, the town was once again a ghost town.
Flight sighed, started the forward engines, and swept the ship around to fly out to sea, to make orbit. She tapped a few keys, and set the orbiting autopilot for a five hundred kilometer equatorial orbit. “... There. Astral, can you get the recon drone a rendezvous?”
Astral Eye tapped her panels. “Aaand… Got it. Closest approach half a kilometer, if there’s no turbulence.”
Flight smiled; it was impressively difficult to get a rendezvous with something that was coming out of the atmosphere, simply because the atmosphere itself was unpredictable, and could force the ascending vessel to alter its trajectory just a little bit, resulting in a slightly different timing. This was, of course, unless it was a targeted ascent, such that the ascending vessel was climbing to a specific orbit- but the autopilot didn’t support that.
“Recon drone?” Twilight asked.
Flight shrugged. “Yep. We didn’t know what to expect, so we left one in orbit when we went down. As a matter of fact, it’s because of it that they knew where we were so long before we arrived in Ponyville.”
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OK, if you're planning to head back to Equineothame so soon, the design of the story makes more sense... though I still feel like there must have been a better way to do it somehow.
10378315
Oh yes, definitely. Unfortunately, this story was written mostly in the "Wing It" style... which is how basically all of the on-surface part went down. By the time last chapter was written, I had a pretty good idea of how I want the next few plot points to go down- but they rely on not clearing all the flags on the first visit to Equestria... Or even the first return trip to Equineothame! (Not spoilered, because of course there will be second one at some point) Which does mean a few things will feel lacking... But hopefully, all will be cleared up soon. They were... I don't know. In a hurry to get back home, and report their success, which meant a lot of the diplomacy kinda got put on hold, beyond that required to decide who to send back with her, if anypony.
Which was Twilight, because of course she'd want to go on a roadtrip with a starship... Even if it's one she's not allowed to pull apart. And politically? There should be no better diplomat than the Princess of Friendship herself...
10378332
Fair enough. I sort of have the opposite problem. I haven't published anything fiction yet because I plan everything out first, then write... and I keep coming up with ideas for improvements that justify reworking things to fit.
Hopefully, once I have time to get back to working on my free alternative to Scrivener, so I have a way to better "look at my ideas from all angles", progress will accelerate.
As for Equineothame, I look forward to seeing where you take things. I enjoyed the feel you had for the off-Equestria stuff and I'm hoping that Twilight's presence won't interfere with re-establishing it.
... Does Twilight actually know that Equinothame has no magic? Or did Flight's crew forget to mention that?
I ask because of this:
10385704
I'm sure they mentioned it... to Celestia. In diplomatic conference, while Twilight had an adventure with her friends or something...
Oh ... Equinothame.
Princess Flight has been gone for ... 5 months? roughly?
Given that she was the only thing keeping their economy and trade going, what's happened in that time?
10395812
As I recall, it was closer to 2-3 months, but yeah, something like that.
Wow. I'm suddenly even more impressed that she got that ship out of there. It's approaching "The Alleged Vehicle" status...!
If the wings fall off you know you have a problem.
I see that Twilight either underestimated the ship's size or overestimated the townsfolk's intestinal fortitude. Most likely both.
10430104
Definitely to the first (see A/N on last chapter for size notes), and probably to the latter, because she's used to Ponyville...